by Helena Tavares Kennedy (Biofuels Digest) Nova Pangaea Technologies, the UK cleantech company at the heart of the drive to Net Zero, started the Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) study for its first commercial plant in the UK. Aemetis, Gevo, USA BioEnergy, DG Fuels and others have also announced feedstock deals, loans, front-end engineering design, and projects that are ramping up and on their way to commercialization. It’s an exciting level of progress giving us a glimpse into how the bioeconomy is going.
In today’s Digest, a look at some of the latest companies like Nova Pangaea, Aemetis, World Energy, Gevo, USA BioEnergy, Sherdar Australia Bio Refinery, DG Fuels, and Sweetwater making progress towards their first commercial projects, deals, loans, and more.
Nova Pangaea
Let’s start with the latest news from Nova Pangaea Technologies, the UK cleantech company at the heart of the drive to Net Zero, that they have started the Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) study for its first commercial plant in the UK. This is a huge next step towards plant construction and commercial production.
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Aemetis
As just reported today in The Digest, Aemetis closed two new, lower interest rate credit facilities with aggregate availability of up to $100 million, comprised of up to $50 million for projects that produce lower carbon intensity renewable products and up to $50 million for working capital.
The credit facilities are expected to provide funding for the Aemetis projects that reduce the carbon intensity of renewable fuels, including a zero carbon intensity solar array and extensive process equipment electrification upgrades to the Keyes ethanol plant, a sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and renewable diesel plant, and carbon sequestration facilities.
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Let’s not forget about the news from over in India that Aemetis’ Universal Biofuels subsidiary in Kakinada, India has agreed to acquire a site to construct a tallow oil refining facility.
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And how about the news that Aemetis, Inc. signed an offtake agreement with Japan Airlines for 90 million gallons of blended sustainable aviation fuel to be delivered over the 7-year term of the agreement. The blended sustainable aviation fuel to be supplied under this agreement is 40% SAF and 60% Petroleum Jet A to meet international blending standards.
And moving over to biogas, Aemetis Biogas has completed an additional seven miles of underground pipeline to transport biogas from five new dairy digesters to the centralized Renewable Natural Gas upgrading facility located at the Aemetis Keyes biofuels plant.
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Vertimass and World Energy
Not to be outdone, in the United States, Vertimass and World Energy inked a Memorandum of Understanding to collaborate on the development and application of Vertimass Technologies to produce renewable fuels, including sustainable aviation fuel. World Energy is exploring integrating Vertimass’ proprietary alcohol to renewable fuel technologies for the production of SAF, biomass-based diesel, green gasoline, renewable naphtha, and other renewable fuel products.
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Gevo
In Iowa, Gevo has begun the process of bringing its wholly owned dairy manure-based renewable natural gas project online. Located in northwest Iowa, the project is known as Gevo NW Iowa RNG, LLC, and it is expected to produce approximately 355,000 MMBtu of RNG per year.
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USA BioEnergy
Just a few weeks ago, the excitement was hard to contain with $3.4 billion for Newton County, TX as USA BioEnergy sites its first commercial biorefinery for their advanced renewable fuels project. The company expects project completion in late 2025.
Ultimately, the company aims to delivering over 100M gallons of sustainable aviation fuel into LAX annually. They will achieve this by capturing CO2 as part of our process then sequester it in permanent geologic storage deep underground.
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Sherdar Australia Bio Refinery
There was also news from the land down under from Sherdar Australia Bio Refinery Pty Ltd. and their plans to develop a commercial scale renewable diesel processing and storage facility
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DG Fuels
While this one came in a few months ago, it’s still worth noting because an unusual suspect became more visible when word arrived that DG Fuels was invited to submit a Part II Application for a loan guarantee under the U.S. Department of Energy Title XVII Loan Guarantee Program. If successful, the proposed $2.15 billion loan guarantee from the DOE would accelerate the scaling up of the proposed sustainable aviation fuel project.
The first commercial scale project is in Louisiana and it’s a doozy.
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Sweetwater
While all eyes have been on Ukraine lately, there is some good news that came in from another former USSR republic and neighbor to Ukraine’s north above Belarus and Latvia – Estonia. U.S. based Sweetwater Energy received final acceptance of its first commercial Sunburst unit at the Sweetwoods Project in Estonia, proving that Sunburst has met all criteria—including energy usage, throughput, and quality of product. READ MORE